Midnight snack @ Aromas

A nice little cafe in hiranandani with a warm and welcoming ambience. Often come here for a late night snack. They serve a refreshing ice tea which is actually freshly brewed and not the instant powder stuff served in your run of the mill cafes ...

For bites check out their pizzas, chicken peri peri which we had today :-), bruschettas. The desserts are awesome ... We had the carrot and walnut brownie with icecream today !!!

Gotta work off the extra calories tomorrow ...

Cricket on Zebra Crossing

Zebra crossing transformed to a makeshift cricket pitch while pedestrians cautiously avoid it and walk past on the road ... Life goes on in perfect harmony !!!

Midnight snack @ Rhythm Beatle Powai

Rhythm the 24/7 coffee shop @ Hotel Beatle Powai serves a huge club sandwich ... ideal for a midnight snack for 2 !!!
This is our latest gourmet discovery in Powai !!!

Jimmy Boy and Bade Mian

Two culinary institutions of Mumbai visited on the same Saturday sometime last year ...

Jimmy Boy : Entered and noticed Raju Hirani sitting at a corner table relishing some mutton dhansak. We ordered the lagan nu bhonu (inr 600) which is a typical Parsi wedding meal ... Came with patrani machchi, dhansak, other dishes and ended with lagan nu custard. Good for 2 unless you are very hungry. Awesome lip-smacking food ... Will be back for more !!!

We'd parked the car at the Horniman Circle bang opposite :

Bade Mian : We only knew of the Bade Mian on the lane behind the Taj ... This one is decidedly more upmarket ... Has airconditioning for godssake :-) learnt that this is a branch of the original BM. After lunch at JB we'd spent a couple hours browsing @ Jehangir Art Gallery and were getting a bit hungry ... So asked for a plate of Chicken malai kebaabs (inr 150) ... Nice !!!

Round Up of some Mumbai Durga Pujas of 2011

above : Vashi Durga Puja 2011

above : Poonam Nagar Durga Puja 2011

above : Kandivali Durga Puja 2011

above : Kandivali ( Thakur Village ) Durga Puja 2011

above : Powai Durga Puja 2011

Saptami schedule was Kandivali and Poonam Nagar and Vashi on Ashtami ...

Was at the Powai pandal both days for anjali & bhog !!!

This year the food stalls at all the pandals are serving lip-smacking stuff all bongs love - fish fry / rolls / cutlets / biryani / mishti doi ... awesome yumminess :-)

At least couple more pujas to be visited planned for Nabomi :

http://northbombaydurgapuja.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lokhandwala-Durga-PUJA/250686661640375

and possibly the ones in Navy Nagar and Ram Krishna Mandir on Bijoya Doshomi morning ...

Durga Puja Pandal @ Powai Mumbai 2011

Got a sneak preview of the Durga Puja pandal under construction near my home ... this year the Puja venue has been shifted as the original ground has been converted to a bus stand ...

A smaller ground but lets hope the scale of the Puja is not compromised.

Looking forward to the week of 2nd October !!!

The Agneepath Coincidence !!!

A remake of Agneepath is on the cards, to be released later this year ... got me reflecting that I'd not seen the orginal as yet ...

The late 80s / early 90s were not the best of times for the big B ... he had a string of flops ... Toofan, Krodh, Ajooba etc ... none of which I've ever seen either.

Movies from this period which fared better were Shahenshah ( Rishte me hum tumhare baap lagete hain ... ) and Hum ( Jumma chumma de de ... ) both of which I'd seen and of course Agneepath ( Vijay Dinanath Chauhan ... poora naam ... ) which had somehow eluded me over the years ... cant fathom why though !!!

Anyway decided to rent the DVD over the weekend and realized that Agneepath is such a treasure trove of Big-B dialogue gems !!! Had it realeased in the Bachchan heydays of mid 70s it could have potentially dethroned Deewar ( Mere paas XYZ hai ... tumhare paas kya hai ... ) for sheer dialogue recall if not Sholay !!!

( paused the movie to click this !!! )

While watching the movie I was casually checking for facebook updates and found an old friend (

Shashi don - who loves his single malts these days ) of mine half way across the world was also watching Agneepath at the same time ... some coincidence !!!

Thought I'd post our facebook chat text on my blog for posterity ... also whats a blog on Mumbai without a smattering of Bollywood !!!

jigsaw puzzle

One of deep's favourite puzzles probably because of the animal theme -
tnx adi !!!

Anand : Serving Mumbai's best Vada Pav !!!

Assembling a Vada Pav - Bun (pav ), Butter, Green Chutney, Masala powder, Potato patty ( vada ) takes less than 10 seconds ...

"Vada Pav" is the street food Mumbai survives on ... and "Anand Vada Pav" opposite Mithibhai College, near Narsee Monjee is definitely the best I've had.

Bombay Times official annual Vada Pao ranking gives it the runner's up position ... which is not bad considering there are over 5,000 Vada Pav street stalls in Mumbai !!!

There's even been an attempt to McDonaldize the humble Vada Pav with the launch of Jumbo King ... should be an interesting case study on how to sustain a business with razor thin margins competing with street vendors who have almost no overhead costs. While they may have scale ... their product lacks the necessary zing which titillates the taste buds ... street vendors like Anand know how to pack in that punch !!!

Durga Puja 2010 at Powai, Mumbai

pic above : yummy fish fry with mustard sauce !!!!!

This might well be the last Durga Puja celebration at Hiranandani Powai. In its 5th year, this puja organized by Powai Bengali Association, has come a long way in terms of scale and popularity. Unfortunately the ground where the pujas are held has been earmarked for construction of a bus stand !!!

Cant think of any alternate grounds nearby to organize the puja at this scale. Having a relatively large ground also allows the setting up of an entertainment zone to showcase local amateur talent and import the pros from Kolkata ... bengali rock band Chandrabindu, Usha Uthup etc are artistes who perform here regaularly.

Finally there are the food stalls ... with all the goodies loved by bengalis ... mochar chop, fish fry, chiken roll, mutton kosha, luchi alur-dom and biriyani. Gobbled up quite a few fish fries with a dash of mustard myself today evening and looking forward to checking out more dishes tomorrow for dinner.

Hope to visit the Lokhandwala, Poonam Nagar, Santra Cruz pujas tomorrow ... lets see if can can squeeze in the Kandivli pujas ... unfortunately will have to give Shivaji Park, Vashi pujas the miss this year.

Kandivali Durga Puja - Thakur Village Bangiya Pratisthan

By far the best of the 3 Durga Pujas we checked out @ Kandivali ... This one is in Thakur Village on the right side of the Western Express highway as you approach Kandivali from Andheri.

Chandrabindu one of the more well known bengali rock bands was the attraction for the evening and we stayed on for a few numbers and also gorged on some neat egg-chicken rolls from the snack stalls.

However the rockstar of the evening was one of the committee members who was the stand-in master of ceremonies, though a stand-up comedian would be a more accurate description. Check out what he had to say while announcing the winners of the children's painting context which probably had been organized earlier in the day, "Abhi hum us bacchon ka naam bulayega jo bade hokar bada bada artist aur painter banega. Yeh bachcha sab humara bada dada se upohar lega. Hum aap logo ko anurodh karta hai ki jaise jaise mai bachcha ka naam bolega aap sab jor jor se taali dekar us bachcha ko protsahit karega !!! **" Needless to say the audience was in splits by then ...

**Loose translation for folks who dont know bong+hindi ( we need to have a name for this lingo ... just like "hinglish" is the unique combo of hindi+english ) ... unfortunately the humour is always lost in translation, "Now I will announce the names of the kids who will grow up to become famous artists and painters. The kids will collect their awards from our big brother ( refering to the president of the committee ). When I announce the names I request you to clap loudly to encourage the kids".

Getting ready for Durga Puja 09 at Powai !!!

The Hiranandani Durga Puja is now a stone's throw from our new home and this is where we'll spend most of our time this year ... the pandal is getting ready ...

This year again we'll not be going to Kolkata for Durga Puja ... but this time both Baba & Ma are visiting ... and with the learnings from last year's pujas we should have a great time !!!

Hills on the right and the left ...

Powai Hills ( above left ) in front of our apartment complex ... and there are these highrise apartment blocks on the other side.

Wonder which was the inspiration for the name of our apartment complex "Gundecha Hills" ... the natural ones or the man made concrete hills.

Morning walk @ Juhu Beach

 

Early mornings are the best time to visit the Juhu Beach ... you have the beach almost to yourself and can contemplate the rolling waves and the changing times in peace ...